Wills looked like he was ready to climb out of his own skin. “Just pick somewhere!” he yelled.
“Fine!” Like a reflex, Neil rattled off his home address and the car zoomed into motion. Maggie gave him a judgmental look but wisely didn’t say a word.
The more distance they put between themselves and the campus, the more comfortable everyone became. They eased into their seats, tense muscles ready to flee relaxing fractionally. By the time they reached cruising speed on the highway, the high-pitched panic had retreated to a dull hum. It’d only take a couple hours until the car pulled up in front of his parents’ house and he had no idea what he was going to tell them.
The mood in the car eased even more as the sky began to lighten. The rising sun felt like a protective blanket, as if merely making it to the next day had given them a reprieve. Neil knew it was a false comfort, a childish belief that the bad guys wouldn’t attack in the middle of the day, but he allowed himself to buy into it.
He could almost feel the Seed pulsing inside his brain. Like a snitch, an informant, a part of his own body that’d betrayed him.
Wills fell into a deep sleep, his head pressed against the far window. Rachel was awake, but leaned against Neil’s shoulder. He felt as though he might never sleep again.
“So, what’s the plan?” Ian asked as calmly as if they were discussing lunch options.
Neil met Maggie’s gaze, ignoring the fact she was draped all over Ian. “I guess we have to get rid of our Seeds.”
“We all do?” Rachel whispered.
Neil shrugged, his gesture bouncing her head slightly. “I guess so. If you don’t want to, we’ll have to drop you off before we get to… where we’re going.” A wave of paranoia washed over him. He looked at his friends not just as people, but as people with tiny cameras and listening devices, all probably tapped and transmitting.
Ian sensed where his mind had traveled. “I don’t care. I’m in. Totally. Ever since Mags told me about what happened to you, I can’t stop thinking about how fucked up it all is.” He patted her leg, the one she’d so casually hooked over his.
“Me too,” Rachel whispered.
Maggie dropped to her knees in the center of the car, pushing bags out of the way until she found hers. “I already did mine,” she muttered as if it were an afterthought.
Ian and Neil gasped at the same time. “Really?” “You did?”
Neil could tell from her grin that she loved this attention. Even in such dire circumstances, she didn’t change. “Well, yeah. I’m not an idiot.”
He watched as she fussed a with the string of lights in her lap. They weren’t anything special, something you might see at Christmas. They were connected to a simple device, like a bit of electronics he might’ve had to manipulate in an electrical engineering class.
“How do you know how to do all this?” Neil whispered, unable to hide the awe in his voice. “You’re supposed to be a doctor, remember?”
“I’m a woman of many talents. What can I say?” A moment later when the lights were fully untangled, she replied seriously. “I want to do something that combines both. You know, like a hybrid thing that helps people. I guess that’s why I’ve always been so fascinated by the Seed. It’s the first step toward a future where we combine with computers, make our lives better by fully joining together and…”
She shook her head, realizing she’d let her guard down more than she would have normally. It was a sweet moment of vulnerability. Neil couldn’t remember a time he’d seen her so exposed.
“I had no idea,” he whispered.
And as quickly as it happened, she wiped the moment away. “Yeah, well. I’ll probably invent some super robot dick and make a bank load of cash, so… there’s that,” she smirked. “Men will pay for anything that involves their cocks.”
Neil rolled his eyes and actively ignored the knowing smile Ian tried to flash him. “Does it hurt?”
“No, you doofus. They’re just lights.” She shimmied across the floor of the car and placed the pile in his lap. “I could cram them up your ass if you want a little pain.”
“Could you please be serious for one freakin’ second,” he huffed. At this distance, he could see the humor was shielding the genuine fear in her eyes. He felt like an ass for calling her out on it. “What do I do?”
“Well, Hypnos said it needed to be done in a dark room, so since we can’t do that…” She scanned the car and grabbed a jacket from the top of a bag. “You’ll have to put this over your head. The lights blink in a specific sequence. You don’t even have to keep your eyes open, but I think it’ll work better if you do.”
Neil frowned, his fingers threading around the thin string of lights. “They blink and the Seed dies?”
Maggie settled back in her place beside Ian, taking his hand in hers. “Basically. The Seed actually migrates after insertion, so it’s nowhere near the injection site. You’d have to cut through skull to get to it, but this way, you go through your eye sockets. Direct access.”
Bile rose in his throat as he pulled the coat over his head. Before he pulled it down he looked up at the others as if making sure he was doing the right thing. Rachel put her hand on his thigh and Maggie laughed.
“I told you it doesn’t hurt, you pussy. Just hit the switch on the side. It only takes like, ten minutes.”
Before he could back out, he flicked the switch on and submerged himself in the darkness of the jacket. At first, he kept his eyes squeezed shut. Even now, a part of his brain was resisting that this was all happening. He’d even entertained the idea that it was all an elaborate Dreamscape, something insanely detailed Maggie had downloaded. But as the others whispered their plans for escape in the car around him, he forced himself to accept this was the real deal.
He opened his eyes and watched the blue lights blink on and off. The cool icy bulbs flicked on and off in an odd sequence. His brain was having a hard time registering each flicker. They were moving either too fast or too slow, but in any case, the sensation was disorienting. After a minute of staring through the lights, he slipped into an odd trance-like state. Before he knew it, Rachel was squeezing his leg and Maggie was laughing.
“You can come out now.”
“It’s done?” He blinked as the coat was pulled off his head. Dawn had blossomed into full day, adding to the disorienting effect. “I’m done?”
“You’re done big boy. I don’t have a sticker for you, hope you don’t mind.”
Rachel passed the lights over to Wills who groggily accepted them, slipped under the coat, and began the process again without a word of complaint. Neil realized again how terrified he must’ve been to see those men waiting for him in his room.
A shiver traveled down his spine as he remembered them showing up for him. He hadn’t taken it seriously. He’d been literally kidnapped, examined, and returned with no explanation and yet he didn’t freak out. That’s not normal behavior. That’s not at all the way a normal person would react.
Did they do something to me while I was in there? Did they do something to my Seed to make me more compliant? He looked around the interior of the car, weariness on all their expressions. Could one of them snap and kill me like the others? How has this happened?
He watched the trees whisk by the car, silently battling the biggest existential crisis he’d ever faced. It was childish, but it felt good to be going home. He was terrified and while he wasn’t going to tell his parents what was happening, he looked forward to seeing them again.
If we hadn’t gotten away, I might not have ever seen them again, he thought.
Neil looked to Maggie. Her head lolled back on the seat, eyes slowing opening and closing as sleep tempted her deeper. He reached out and touched her knee.
“Thank you.”
The sincerity of the moment caught her off guard. She nodded, her lips pressed together in a thin line as if she was holding something back. “You’re welcome.”
Neil told the car to stop just short of hi
s house. Now that they were there, he didn’t want to face his parents. They’d be full of questions he had no answers for. The last thing he wanted was to implicate them in any way. If they were being followed or tracked, he wanted to wait for them to get to work before sneaking in.
He watched them through the front window, so far away yet so close. He dared only admit it to himself, but he desperately wanted a hug from his mom.
Maggie huffed and shoved past him. “They aren’t my parents. I’m going to my house to…”
He snatched her arm and yanked her back. “You can’t! If they see you, they’ll want to say hi and they’d ask about me and…”
“Okay! Jeez. Calm yourself.”
It was only a few more minutes before his parent’s car pulled away from their drive. He waited a few moments before climbing out, just to make sure they didn’t swing back around.
“Am I allowed to go home now?” Maggie asked as she stretched her arms over her head.
“Be back as quickly as you can,” he replied.
She and Ian strode down the manicured sidewalk to her house. Neil felt an uncanny twinge. It was odd seeing Wills, Ian, and Rachel in his hometown. It felt like worlds were colliding, like individual images had been layered on top of each other to create an entirely new scene.
“You have a nice home,” Rachel said, pulling his attention away.
“Th-thanks. We need to move quick,” he replied, stepping into action. “I don’t know my parent’s schedule anymore. They could be back any minute.”
The access code to the front door still worked, which was good. Tears prickled the corners of his eyes when they were all safely inside. All he wanted to do was run upstairs, hide under the sheets on his bed, and pretend he was a kid again. Exhaustion and stress were really taking a toll on him.
“I think everything is in the garage.”
“Do you mind if I make something to eat?” Wills asked, pointing to the kitchen. “I haven’t eaten in…”
“Yeah, of course. There should be plenty of food. If there’s enough, we can all eat before we go.”
They splintered off, but Rachel stuck close to him.
Since she didn’t know where anything was, Rachel kept him company, picking through boxes from his childhood. A wave of paranoia overtook him. Was it just a coincidence she was with Wills at the exact moment those men showed up?
“I haven’t seen you around a lot,” he tried to say casually.
She replied with her back still to him. “Yeah, I’ve been busy. Finals and everything.”
“Right.” Neil opened a container to find a few pieces of camping equipment. He was getting closer to what he was looking for. He watched her peripherally. “Everything going okay?”
She flicked her long hair over her shoulder and looked at him quizzically. “As in at this very moment or life in general?”
The frankness of her question threw him off guard. “Uh, I guess, generally?”
Rachel cocked her head in the other direction and shrugged. “Can’t complain, I suppose.” She reached into a container and held up a blue stuffed monkey. “Yours?” she grinned.
“No, actually. It was my sister’s.”
“Oh! I didn’t know you have a sister. Is she older or younger?”
“She’s dead,” he replied flatly.
Rachel let out a squeak as if she’d been wounded. “I’m so…”
Neil quickly recovered. “No, it’s fine. She died when she was a baby,” he said, as if it weren’t a big deal. He failed to mention the part that he was seven and at the hospital when she died.
Desperate to change the subject, he clung to the deep-seeded paranoia that’s struck him since walking through the front door. He felt vulnerable in a place that normally made him secure. “You uh… you’re the last one to turn off your Seed, right?”
She squeezed the monkey tight to her chest, almost protectively. “Uh, I guess so, yeah.”
He tried to tell himself not to take out his fears on her and softened his tone. “It’s really not bad at all. You might feel a little…”
“Holy shit!” Wills called out from the living room. “Guys! You gotta see this!”
Neil led the way back, finding the others crowded around Maggie and her tablet.
“What’s going on? I didn’t hear you come back in.” He was struck by seeing them in his childhood home, Maggie the only one not seeming like a figment of his imagination. A knot in his stomach clenched, as if reminding him that this wasn’t a fun vacation away.
“What is it?” Ian asked.
“Hypnos just sent me this. It’s a news thing from the BBC. I guess there was…” She couldn’t finish her thought.
They huddled around her tablet as she scrolled to the top of the piece. Even though they could read over her shoulder, she explained it as if they couldn’t.
“Hundreds of people killed themselves yesterday in the UK. It didn’t happen all at once, but over the course of an hour. All across the country.”
“Oh my God,” Rachel whispered, a hand going to her mouth.
“They don’t actually know how many people have died yet.”
Wills pointed over her shoulder. “What’s the video?”
She looked up and shook her head. “You don’t want to…”
“The fuck I don’t! Show me the video!”
Maggie’s jaw audibly clacked shut as she hit play. Neil noticed her avert her eyes from the screen and hold it out for everyone else to watch.
The footage was similar to the violent moments captured in the mall, on the golf range, accept the viewers were saved from the gruesome deaths. Crowds screaming with confusion as dozens of people climbed over the safety railings on bridges. Families huddling in the street, camera panning up to the top of a tall building. Ambulances, first responders, eyes white with panic and fear and confusion.
The clip wasn’t horrible because of the gore. It was their blank, lifeless faces that made it horrific.
Ian was the first to speak after the video ended. “We don’t know what did this. There’s nothing that says…”
Wills cleared his throat and returned to his seat. His face was cast in shadow, the morning light streaming in behind him. “The counter reset yesterday. That’s why I looked again, to see if anything new would pop up on the site.”
“And?” Neil asked, despite every part of his brain begging him not to.
“The beta finished a while ago. It changed to something beginning with ‘I.’ Initialize, iterate, intent, something like that.”
The weight of the moment crashed on them in full force. None of them were capable of handling the gravity of what was happening in the world. They each returned to their seats, the air sombre as if one of their own had actually died.
“I don’t know how I managed to get a front row seat to all this, but I’d like to get off the ride now,” Wills said, shaking his head, his voice tinged with panic.
“You did. We all did,” Neil tried to comfort. “We killed the Seeds. We’re safe.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
San Francisco, CA
June 25th
PENELOPE TYPED out a quick message to Joey.
I’m running a little late, sorry!
A moment later his reply dinged back.
Don’t worry about it! We’ll be here waiting for you. Love you!
She kicked her feet up on the desk and leaned back in the squeaky chair. She closed her eyes and dreamed of a life where she wasn’t constantly dancing around half-truths. Life had painted her into a corner and she was simply doing the best she could with the situation.
With a long sigh, she sat up and unfolded the piece of paper she’d kept concealed in her pocket for days. She’d managed to get smuggle the majority of things on Wesley’s list into her office. Bits here and there, stolen at odd hours of the day when no one was looking.
The hospital was quiet. After a full month of almost crippling patient numbers, fatigue had set in. But as things got
back to normal, staff started to slack off here and there, not being as attentive as maybe they should’ve been. Luckily for Penelope, she could take advantage of the rest.
This night, like many others, she was avoiding going home. The trip to Tahoe had taken a lot of pressure off their relationship and the distance from work had apparently taken the target off her back. At least, she felt like no one was watching her too closely now that she was back to her normal workload. She still wandered the halls, but more times than not found herself walking down those corridors where they’d housed the catatonic. Those rooms had been refitted back to house a normal capacity.
As the clocked ticked close to midnight, she finally gave in and packed up, ready to head home. She took one final look at the list and stuffed it back into her pocket. If I can’t get these last things, I’ll just order them online. It’s nothing special, she thought.
Even the lot was quiet. Rather than call her car over, she enjoyed the walk to the end of the lot. The damp fog had come in thick from the bay, casting the world in an eerily soft light. She stumbled into the car and collapsed in a tired heap.
“Home,” she commanded, with her eyes shut.
It was the subtle, subconscious awareness that first tipped her off that something was wrong. The turns were wrong. The speeds were wrong. After a few minutes, her eyes fluttered open to see she was being whisked toward the Bay Bridge, the exact opposite direction of their house.
Penelope sat up straight and delivered her navigation to the car, thinking that maybe in her tired state she’d said something different. There was no familiar beep of acknowledgment.
“Go home. Go to 22nd and Clifftop.”
But nothing happened.
A coppery taste filled her mouth as she looked out the window. The car accelerated as it crossed the bridge, cruising along in relatively open lanes, unobstructed by other commuters. She moved to call Joey but stopped, not wanting to worry him just yet. She thought to call the police but hesitated. If she was found in a car filled with expensive drugs and equipment she’d stolen from the hospital, her career would be over.
Stasis (Part 2): Iterate Page 11